COVID-19 a chance to secure a population boost in the NT, demographer says, as new data points to another negative quarter

THE Territory could seize on the ‘real window of opportunity’ created by coronavirus to steal Australians from other states to grow its population, demographers have said.

THE Territory could seize on the “real window of opportunity” created by coronavirus to steal Australians from other states to grow its population, demographers have said.

As new Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows the Northern Territory was again the only jurisdiction where population had shrunk year-on-year, The Demographics Group research director Simon Kuestenmacher said the surge in people working from home had created a unique opportunity.

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Mr Kuestenmacher said achieving Australia’s goal of “decentralising” the population from the “big five” cities and into regional parts of the country could be achieved now that it was clear flexibility in the workplace could work in certain sectors.

“You don’t have to worry so much about where your work is … and therefore you could argue what a nice life you would have to have a job that pays a Sydney wage but you’re located in a (relative) cheaper city, like Darwin,” he said.

The population data, which covers the first three months of 2020 and therefore does not yet reflect the full impact of COVID-19, showed the Territory had a net decrease of 400 people compared to the same time period in 2019.

Charles Darwin University Northern Institute demographer Dr George Tan said there appeared to be a “slight improvement” in how many people the Territory was losing to other states, with net interstate migration reduced from -1262 in March 2019 quarter to -655 in the March 2020 quarter.

Dr Tan said there had been anecdotal stories of people fleeing other jurisdictions to live in the NT during the pandemic but there was still no data to verify if that was true.

“We can’t be definitive, there would be some, but we just don’t know,” he said.

The next round of population data, due to be released in December, is where coronavirus impacts on population will be made known.

CDU is also conducting its own research, building on last year’s Territory and Me survey, to provide a better understanding of COVID-19’s impact on population migration patterns into and out of the NT.

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Overall, the Territory’s population was estimated to be 245,353 people as at the end of March, up 364 from 244,989 by the end of 2019.

National population grew by nearly 114,000 people for the quarter and 357,000 annually, to about 25.65 million.

This means the NT accounts for 0.96 per cent of Australia’s entire population.